Wednesday, June 20, 2007

Midweek Musings

I’m always trying to keep up with the events – sometimes the only way to keep up is to start firing:

Got a note from my brother today that one of my high school classmates, Bridget Wessing, passed away on Monday. Bridget was a good soul who certainly had her struggles in life. She managed to graduate from XHS but she never really made it much further than that. I was never clear what the issue was with her, although I suspect she suffered from some mild mental illness. She became an acquaintance and sometimes a friend of Mom, whose struggles in this arena have been well-discussed in this space. Bridget could be a bit of a pest and she had a propensity to do a few odd things; according to the obituary in the Appleton Post-Crescent, she was a devotee of church picnics, while my brother added that she also was a funeral groupie and that she had become a bit of a town character. Still, there was never any doubt that her heart was in the right place and I don’t doubt that when she met her Maker, her Maker was pleased to welcome her. RIP.

One of the more interesting revelations that has come from the financial disclosure statements that the presidential hopefuls have been providing is this: apparently former president Bill Clinton gave a speech to the Boys & Girls Clubs of Los Angeles and received $150,000. I’m not sure what’s worse about this: that this much-beloved scoundrel is such a grifter that he would actually charge a charity six figures to give a speech; or that a charity would give the money to him for something so transitory. This is just another reason why his pieties are so grating. If trade associations and other groups are willing to pony up that kind of money to see the guy, that’s fine. But you would think that he’d speak to a charity for free.

After a two-day respite, the kids are back to baseball. Ben’s Brewers have their rematch tonight against the Mariners; game time is 6:30 p.m. at Sitzer Park in Shoreview. Meanwhile, Maria’s Rockies will take on the Dodgers at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow at Veteran’s Park in New Brighton. Be there – aloha!